The present invention relates to product feeding apparatus suitable for delivering items of product into pockets of a blister type pack and, in particular but not exclusively, for the feeding of pharmaceutical dosage forms into pockets of pharmaceutical blister and patient packs.
Patient packs are trays defining an array of pockets for holding medication for a patient, hermetically sealed by a film. Typically the pockets, which are sized to accommodate a variety of product types, hold a dose of medication to be taken on a particular day or time. For example, a pack may have an array of pockets arranged into four columns by seven rows wherein each column represents one week of a four week period and the rows represent days within each week. If medication is needed to be taken multiple times a day, e.g. with breakfast, lunch and dinner, three packs would be assigned to the patient for the four week period wherein each pack contains the medication for the respective dose for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Patient packs are particularly useful in environments such as nursing homes and prisons for the dispensing of medication to residences with ongoing or repeat prescriptions. The prescription, in the form of tablets, capsules, caplets or other discrete dosage forms, is made up in advance at a pharmacy, hand filled into the pockets of the patient pack, sealed, marked with the patient's details and sent to the patient's residence. The medication can then be taken by the patient as directed on the pack. This system obviates the need for institutions, such as those mentioned above, to employ staff who are authorised to dispense medication.
Automatic filler machines are commonly used for the filling of specific product items into blister packs. The process for each product is heavily tailored with the blister pack and filling machining being specifically designed to hold and handle the dimensions and form of the particular product item. Modification of the machines to handle a different shaped or sized product requires expensive re-tooling of all the product contact components. It is thought that in excess of 300 sets of re-tooled components would be needed for a feeding machine to handle all of the known discrete dosage forms of pharmaceutical product.
As a consequence of the above, automatic feeders have been considered impractical for use in filling patient packs where a wide variety of different product forms are handled, often in relatively small quantities at a time.